


(K)losure

by Miching_Mallecho



Category: K (Anime)
Genre: End of Season 1 spoilers, Grief and Angst, Izumo is best bartender, M/M, Seri kinda is too, They're using first names in this one, Yata Suoh and Totsuka are mentioned, this is sad i'm sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 07:34:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11031567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miching_Mallecho/pseuds/Miching_Mallecho
Summary: "Reisi isn't quite sure why he's here but he thinks it has something to do with the spike of guilt he feels every time he pulls out a cigarette or blows out a match."





	(K)losure

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tastewithouttalent](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tastewithouttalent/gifts).



The first time Reisi enters the bar HOMRA after murdering their King, Izumo only watches him as the bell above the door chimes his arrival. He steps far enough in for the door to close behind him and looks around. The bar is gleaming, as always, and the place immaculate but empty. More than that, it feels empty. Perhaps because Reisi's only seen it during the day with the soft sunlight filtering in and lighting the entire space with a homey glow. Or maybe it’s just that he’s never seen the place empty of everyone but the bartender. Or perhaps it’s because the inner flame has been put out. Reisi isn't quite sure why he's here but he thinks it has something to do with the spike of guilt he feels every time he pulls out a cigarette or blows out a match.

He makes his way to the bar under Izumo's watchful gaze with his chest feeling a little tighter than it did before he walked through the door. He isn't quite sure what he expects, but it certainly isn't the way Izumo brings an ash tray over to him without being asked and the book of matches he leaves beside it. It certainly isn't the calm acceptance Izumo is giving him as he waits for Reisi to order. 

Reisi suddenly knows what he came here looking for, and that he isn't going to get it. He looks up at Izumo and thinks about getting up, telling the bartender this was a mistake and leaving. There must be some crime going on somewhere that he can find to occupy himself with. If he wanted calm, he would have stayed at his desk and worked on a new puzzle. Reisi starts to get up when Izumo's hand lands on his shoulder.

"Stay," Izumo says quietly. 

Reisi looks at the man with the intent of telling him he'd rather go, but Izumo's hand tightens on his shoulder.

"It's too empty here Reisi. Have a drink with me." 

If the man hadn’t used his first name, hadn’t actively anchored him in the seat, hadn’t sounded like he was pleading… Izumo feels it too then, of course he does. This place used to be lively but Reisi has killed it. Reisi doesn’t know why Izumo is being so accepting of the man who murdered his King, murdered the liveliness of his bar and his family—

Izumo sets the glass down heavily in front of Reisi, interrupting his thoughts and apparently too impatient for Reisi to order one himself. It doesn’t matter, apparently Izumo remembers what he likes. Another glass follows the first, across from Reisi’s. “I hope you won’t judge me too harshly for drinking on the job,” Izumo says.

Reisi keeps his mouth closed; shakes his head instead of offering the comment _the place looks closed anyway_ that rose unbidden to his tongue. He picks up his glass and drowns the comment instead, Izumo joining him in the action, neither of them setting the glasses down until they’re empty. Reisi ruins the moment with a cough.

“You looked like you could use it,” Izumo says. He turns slightly to pick up the bottle again and refill Reisi’s glass. “You look like you could use this one too.”

“I could use a lot of things,” Reisi allows, tipping this next glass back too but not before tapping it against Izumo’s when the man holds his own out in offering. _A rewind button_ , Reisi thinks. _A time machine_. He looks at Izumo for a moment when the man half turns again to reach for the bottle of alcohol. _An explanation_. Reisi drowns his tongue again instead of asking for any of these things. He’s not entirely sure he wants the one that could be granted him.

“How is your lovely Lieutenant lately?” Izumo asks before the silence between the two of them can become oppressive.

“Are you going to pretend that you don’t talk to her every chance you get, Kusanagi?” Reisi asks, a hint of amusement in his tone. The face Izumo makes would make him smile at any other time.

“W-well, it’s not l-like—“

“If I disapproved I would have ordered her not to….fraternize, by now.” He makes sure he looks Izumo in the eyes when he uses that word, makes sure to pause to make it almost suggestive, because the man really does make the most amusing facial expressions when he’s flustered and this is the most fun Reisi has had since…well, it _was_ the most fun he was having. Reisi can feel the smile slipping off of his face but there isn’t much he can do to hide it but bring the glass to his lips again.

“I appreciate that you haven’t,” Izumo says, but his voice has gone quiet with the knowledge of what Reisi almost thought of, this weight between them that is just light enough to breathe around but heavy enough that the darkness outside the bar feels like it’s actively trying to get in.

“Izumo,” and the bartender knows, from the way that Reisi uses his first name and the tone of his voice and probably the way his face is scrunched up because he can feel the frown tugging at his lips and the way his eyebrows have drawn together…he takes a breath, and Izumo holds up his hand.

“He knew what he was getting into, Reisi. Yata may hold a grudge but I…I think Suoh planned it from the beginning. He knew he could sleep safely in your jail while he searched, and he knew once he found who had killed Totsuka that only a King could kill a King. And he knew you wouldn’t let his Damocles Down ruin the city.” The bartender pauses to pull out a cigarette and a lighter, and it’s such a natural movement that Reisi could almost forget Izumo doesn’t have his clan powers anymore. Izumo was always the one who used his powers most sparingly, Reisi isn’t even sure the man finds it that much of an inconvenience really but he can’t bring himself to ask and suspects anyway that it’s the alcohol making him wonder.

“I disagree with his methods, and I disagree with his using you to accomplish them. But he was my King, and I would follow him even to my own destruction so,” Izumo pauses to fill his mouth with alcohol. “I think he had craved his destruction for some time, probably since we lost Totsuka, and this was a way to do it.” Izumo looks away from his empty glass and back at Reisi. “I am sorry he hurt you to accomplish it.”

“Hurt…me?” Reisi’s mind isn’t just slow with alcohol, it’s racing over the fact that Izumo specifically called Reisi’s supposed hurt into question when Suoh abandoned his entire clan in death. His clan that was basically a family, much more so than most of its members seemed to have previously experienced in their lives before HOMRA. He’s still wondering why Izumo is considering Reisi’s possible hurt when Reisi’s hands were the ones that tore the happiness out of this place when he shoved a cold metal blade into the heart of these people.

“You can admit it, you know. I think he had feelings for you too, in his own way.” Izumo takes out another cigarette, looks from the packet to whatever facial expression Reisi is making and then offers him one.

Reisi pretends his fingers aren’t shaking slightly when he takes the proffered cancer stick, as he leans slightly over so that Izumo can light it for him; Reisi pretends his eyes aren’t filling up with tears with the memory of the last time someone lit a cigarette for him and Izumo’s casual _I think he had feelings for you too, in his own way_ ringing in his ears.

Reisi can’t pretend anymore when the first drops hit the table and the silence stretches long between them. He doesn’t look up at Izumo, doesn’t thank him for the cigarette or the light. He pulls it from his shaking lips and sets it on the ashtray and watches the smoke curl up from it as Izumo pours him another drink he’s not sure he wants but is sure that he’ll drink.

“It’ll be easier to heal if you admit it to yourself, you know,” Izumo says softly in a way that makes Reisi wonder how many hurting people he has comforted behind his bar. Reisi had always heard bartenders could make good therapists and he wants to laugh but he’s not sure what would come out if he unclenched his jaw.

Izumo allows him a few silent moments before he sighs what could almost be the start of a chuckle. “Stubborn as always,” he says before he lifts his glass abruptly and holds it out to Reisi. “To Suoh, the best King I could have asked for,” and he pauses to look down at Reisi so that Reisi cannot mistake that this next part of the toast is in his honor: “but a reckless, selfish bastard to be in love with.”

A chuckle forces its way out of Reisi’s throat and he lifts one hand to swipe at his eyes and the other to lift his own glass to clink against Izumo’s. “To Suoh: a reckless, selfish bastard to be in love with, but the best King we could have asked for.”

**Author's Note:**

> I sat down today and started writing two different fics (both for different fandoms--Fire Emblem Fates and then DRRR! haha) but this one came out instead and now I'm kinda sad but in that kinda good weird way I guess. I've been wanting to write and post something new for a while and I've had a snippet of this fic on my computer for probably a year honestly and I re-read it today and it kinda kept going in my head so I sat down and wrote it.
> 
> This is for tastewithouttalent because I love her stuff and I've been wanting to gift her a creative thing for a while and she also writes things for this fandom which you should check out yesterday.


End file.
